Blackhand Strawman

Be sure to check out Blackhand Strawman, a documentary of the history of organized crime in Kansas City.  Unfortunately the production and editing is kinda bad, but the storytelling and subject matter is fascinating.  The movie is showing right now at both Screenland Theaters.

Blackhand Strawman was made by Terrance O’Malley, the same guy made the most excellent Nelly Don: A Stich in Time.

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A dusty laser

My MacBook Pro has had a bad optical drive for a few weeks.  It got progressively worse until this week when it refused to read any CD or DVD.  It just ejected anything I tried to put in.  All of my research pointed to a failed drive, until I found this mention of a dusty lens.  The author details removing the optical, disassembling it, cleaning the lens, and then putting it all back to together.

I wasn’t in the mood for computer surgery, so I was intriqued by some comments on the post talking about cleaning the lens without taking anything apart.  While Q-Tips were mentioned, I went with the suggestion to insert a credit card wrapped in a thin t-shirt.  That one did the trick, and now I have functioning optical drive again.

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Porch swing: acquired

Porch swing: acquired

Originally uploaded by erogers

When we were closing on the new house back in September, there was nearly a crisis over the porch swing. Our real estate agent freaked out when the sellers took the old swing with them. Fortunately it was kinda ugly, so we were happy for the opportunity to select our. But then it was surprisingly difficult to find a new porch swing. We tried all the usual suspect hardware and garden stores, but found that only Lowe’s carries porch swings. Maybe because front porches are endangered species in America?

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